One of the pitfalls, flaws, call it what you will, is that we vote for a party and NOT a head of state or a specific President. Part of that is the fact that within a party, if they are in power, they can call whats known as a spill motion to throw out the leader of the party, who is at the same time, Prime Minister.

A few days ago, thats exactly what happened.

And for the fifth time in as many years, Australia has a new Prime Minister, chosen not by the people, but by a party room vote. Tony Abbott is no longer Prime Minister, instead we have a guy named Malcolm Turnbull, who managed to get enough votes to become party leader.

Depending on who you talk to, this is a good or a bad thing.

Personally, I am disgusted and furious, not to mention the fact that to a lot of people, they have been handed yet again a national leader they did not want, and did not vote for, when the election occurred. The sad part is what we have seen is a series of vicious personal attacks, white anting, undermining..all designed to bring him down. There are those who say he hadn’t “learned” enough to lead properly, and a lot of it can be sheeted home to whats called “poll panic”.

Look at it this way: based on polls you could have had Joe Biden step in and remove Obama as President….or have Hillary organise a “spill motion: and SHE would be President. How’s that for a nightmare scenario?

Your system of government doesnt allow for that. It may have its flaws, but that aint one of them.

Be very very grateful this is so.

There have been calls for an election , as rightly so, the people of this country have had a gutful of this kind of backstabbing and musical chairs with the office of Prime Minister..we need stable government and what we have is anything BUT. Both parties Labor (the left) and Liberal (supposedly conservative..yet these clowns are all for gun control, and happy with the nanny state we live in…blech), are very much on the nose with voters. This is seen as yet another Rudd / Gillard / Rudd fiasco..with a side comment on how long it may be before someone ELSE gets that “lean and hungry look” and decides to get the numbers to topple Turnbull.

It if wasnt so serious it would be funny….but it’s not a joke at all. I get this sinking feeling that we are indeed living in “interesting times”.

Avast ye curmudgeons! The truth of things is that politicians the world over have dropped the kimono and everyone can see that they for the most part (there are always a few exceptions) are in the business of ensuring their own enrichment and the proles and the law be damned.

Nothing short of a near total collapse will shake the population to rid themselves of the ruling political class. As most are lawyers, the fix should include banning lawyers (barristers I think you call them) from making law and to begin putting small and medium business persons, engineers and people who can think and understand human nature in office, people who understand budgets, payrolls and the effect of runaway regulation on the economy , and who want to serve for a few years then return to their business (not the megacorp bosses, they are the equivalent of the political class anyway). Nothing against large corporations, only that their leaders have become the funders of the ruling elites in exchange for favors. This has to be minimized. Not pollyannish enough to thing it will go away completely, but is has to be reduced to the minimum. The education system is where we start, get rid of the left in academia by attrition and boot the unions there and most other places too. The system will right itself after 2 or 3 generations of concerted effort shedding laws and regulations. I would tie increases in pay to the reduction of regulation and elimination of useless or bad laws, not the crafting of new law. Off the soap box for the evening.

This only looks to be different from the situation we have here in the U.S., but the truth is that party politics in first world democracies has become a farce. Parties and candidates both are only interested in the voters for their votes, and the process of cultivating them has become a large and sophisticated industry. Beyond that, it is the accumulation of personal power that motivates them. This cancer on the body politic has metastasized over many years, and most of the electorate do not see that the people in the parties have essentially become interchangeable while the deep state has encompassed them.

Despite appearances, the actual difference between candidates and parties is no longer meaningful in first world democracies. Without regard for election results, we still have governments growing far faster than their host economies, regulating more and more of our lives, deceiving us on important issues, defrauding us with central banks, and conspiring against us when it benefits them. All in service to an oligarchy of powerful interests that has captured these governments and uses them as window dressing.

The education system is where we start, get rid of the left in academia by attrition

Good point…I had a long discussion a few years back with our old friend BC along those same lines. Rebuilding the system in our opinions at the time (pre-Obama btw) was exactly the same, with the added idea that the task must start at the grassroots level. We have to accept that this would be a multi-generational task. As you correctly stated academia can only be lost via attrition. Tenure is our enemy to be sure. When I say ‘grassroots’ I mean exactly that. We’re talking grooming folks starting with such mundane positions as board of education positions and the like. The union situation can be dealt simply enough with “Right To Work Laws”, Texas has a great model for that law and that in my opinion is the real solution. I think the perceived tide of unions being beneficial to the workers is definitely being eroded. Given the choice to join or not I sincerely believe most workers would not opt to join if only for saving themselves the union dues, in this economy.

I agree with all, that the two party system has outlived it’s usefulness at the macroscopic level. That is another task that careful planning could devise a solution.

Paladin. I am not sure that will be possible. I’ve had a look at the hoops Id have to jump through..got to have a job that no American can do, got to have a sponsor, got to have a place to live, income, savings…ergh,,,,

If you can say No Habla Ingles, wear a Man-dress, stink so bad it will make a cockroach wretch and claim you are a muslim while carrying a suitcase bomb Obama will throw wide the doors for you. Sadly the Weepy Cheeto will probably be on K-Street raking in millions selling out to Krony Kapitalists so he will be able to give you that huge welcome smooch.